Tutorial Throwback Thursday - Snuggly Squares and II

Okay, so just in case you missed it last week, Tutorial Throwback Thursday is a new feature on the blog this year, leading up to my 10 year Blogiversary.  Each Thursday I will highlight a past tutorial and bring it back to the spotlight and along the way, share some fun insights about that project.   And today's Tutorial Thowback was my first Moda Bake Shop tutorial and it's called Snuggly Squares. 

I remember being so nervous to write this tutorial.  I really had no idea what I was doing ;)   So I just started snapping a whole lot of pictures and sharing everything I could think of.  So this tutorial is super in-depth descriptions of how to make this quilt.  As in, down to explaining which fabrics to cut which pieces out of!!  Which of course, I didn't realize at the time, isn't a huge help now as you can't find this fabric adorable Lily and Will fabric anymore, but it still works if you just shift around colors from your own layer cake :)   

And speaking of Layer Cakes, Snuggly Squares fabric requirements are just 1 Layer Cake.  No background fabric needed, so that makes it super easy to just grab your pre-cut and get going :)    And on a side note,  I just have to smile at this picture, because my sweet friend let me take a picture of her wee one, and that wee one is now 9 years old!!!  I saw a picture of her the other day and she is growing into a beautiful young lady.   Time sure flies :)

Another side note about this quilt, it measures 42" x 42" when finished.   And remember, this was in my starting out days and I figured, why not just use the width of the fabric for backing as it has 44" right!!  Well basting on the carpet didn't quite keep the back perfectly smooth, and let me tell you, it doesn't cut it any closer than having the selvage strip showing ;)  I just say that was a designer choice so you will always remember the fabric line, tee hee hee.  

But the thing I love most about this quilt is that it was gifted to my twin-sister when she had her first baby a year later.  And that quilt is still hanging on the wall of my sweet nieces room!!   It makes me smile every time I visit and has truly become a treasure  ;)

And that's Snuggly Squares, but Surprise, Surprise, today's Tutorial Throwback is actually a double header, because I can't talk about Snuggly Squares without talking about it's twin brother, Sunggly Squares II.  

When a second line of Lily and Will was released, but this time in little boy blue colors, I knew I had to make another tutorial :)    This one is very similar to the first, but changes up some of the basic patchwork in the square frames and borders.     And yes, this was me trying to do more of a "photo shoot" by clipping bunnies to a fence.  It seemed cute at the time, now it's just a little scary with them dangling there, tee hee hee.  

And going through all my pics, this is the only picture I have that doesn't have those bunnies on the quilt ;)   But it's perfect, because it really shows the fun patchwork that is super simple and perfect for a beginner, but still so cute!!!  And this tutorial is just as detailed as the first, so you really could make this as your first quilt ;)  

And Sunggly Squares II  finishes at 42" x 42" and once again, I figured it might as well match the first and did the backing out of 1 1/4 yard.  But today I would have added a strip onto the side of that so there would be room to actually load it on the long arm ;)    And why not leave off with a few more hanging bunnies ;)  

I hope you have enjoyed today's Tutorial Throwback Thrusday!!!     So to make your own Snuggly Squares or Sunggly Squares II  quilt just click on any of the quilt name links for the free step by step tutorials.   And when you are done, I would love to see them!!!  !!  You can email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com, post it to social media with #happyquiltingwithmc  or or add it to my flickr group here ;)  I can't wait to see your Snuggly Squares and Snuggly Squares II baby quilts!!!

Thanks for popping in today and have a very Happy Quilting Day!!!

Wednesday Works in Progress

I have so many works in progress at the moment. I counted this morning and I am "actively" working on 7 quilts at the moment.  Which means I will have lots of finishes to share in the next little bit.  But for today, I thought it would be fun to share just a few of those Works in Progress ;)

So first up, I had some leftovers from my Goldenrod fabrics I used in this Goldenrod Pyramids Quilt and I thought it would be so great paired with my favorite Gris Grunge.  Isn't it just awesome!!!   This is going to be a baby size version of a new pattern I am working on.   And yup, It's got curves!!!

Next, I am working on another new pattern but this time, it's the Queen size as I already made a Baby Size test version, which of course, is in the to be quilted pile ;)   But hey, that baby size is a quilt top finish, so that's great!!!   So this Queen size uses Poppie Cotton's second fabric line called Wanderings.  I posted more about it here  which shows this has been sitting on my to make pile for over a month now.  I am happy to say, I have been doing some serious chain stitching on this and have made a lot of progress in the last two days.   And this happy pile is just about ready to be turned into stars, my favorite!!! 

And I am thrilled, that this last weekend, I finally came up with a new design for Jocelyn's new Bedspread that I talked about needing to do over here (in April, tee hee hee)   Better late than never.  For this quilt, I am using a Bungalow Fat Eighth Bundle by Kate Spain and I am super excited to be using Pink for the background!!!   And my plan is to make this a tutorial so you can be watching for that to come ;)   I got it all cut out yesterday, and am excited to get going on this!!

And finally, while I was working on cutting out quilts yesterday, I added one more to the pile.  I was invited to make another Fat Quarter Shop Shortcut quilt and you all know how much I love those!!!  This one won't be out until September, so I have some time, but it's nice to have it all cut and ready to go when I have a few seconds of spare stitching ;)    And the fabric is The Print Shop by Sweetwater which will also be available in September, so good timing there!!   And ya, this will also be another Alma Mater quilt, could you tell by the Red, White, and Black ;)   

So that is just a few of my Works in Progress :)  It's always nice to have everything ready to go so that when I have a few minutes that is the craziness of summer I can run down to my sewing room and squeeze in a little chain stitching.   So great!!!   

Oh, and you might have noticed the background of my pics is a little different.   Trying to take better pictures is a constant Work in Progress for me.   And the struggle is real :)   So when Fat Quarter Shop had their Anniversary Sale I decided to order a few things to try and help with that WIP.    I got a Christopher Thompson White Cutting Mat and a Floor Lamp Ott Light.  I love the idea of having a white background in all my tutorial pics vs that old green color.   And I am hoping the Ott Light will help to brighten up those pics vs my overhead poor basement lighting.  I am excited to see if these can help my Picture Taking Works in Progress, cause honestly, I can use all the help I can get on that front ;)    

So what are you working on??  I would love to hear what works in progress you have, and for that matter, if you have any picture taking secrets you want to share, that's great too ;)  

I hope you all have a very Happy Quilting Day!!!

Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Day!!!

It's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Day so let's have some fun :)

First, we need to announce the winner from last weeks Terrific Tuesday Giveaway :)

The winner of the Kringle & Claus Jelly Roll from Green Fairy Quilts is . . .  Number #32 . . .   Congrats Cathy!!!   I have emailed you :)   

 

        

And on to today's

Today's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway is being sponsored by Fat Quarter Shop.   Fat Quarter Shop is amazing and they never cease to amaze me with everything they have going on at their shop!!!     And did you know they have a 24 Hour Flash Sale every day with 2 Flash Sales on Tuesdays!!   And not only do they have a daily deal, they have a Fabric Basic, Pattern, and Notion of the Month!!!!    And this month you will score big on all of them!!!  All Kona Cottons are on sale for the Basic, All Fiskars are on sale for the Notion, and All Elizabeth Hartman Patterns are on sale for the Pattern.  Save 20-30% off of all of them for the whole month of May!!  So great ;) 

And for today's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Fat Quarter Shop is giving away a Beautiful Yellow Sew Colorful Bundle curated by Fat Quarter Shop with 15 Fat Quarters of  happy sunshine yellows ;)    Have you been following along with the Sew Colorful Bundles, each month a new color is released and they are oh so cute!!!! 

You have two entry chances, the second being optional, and please leave a separate comment for each.  All Entries are welcome, including International Entries.  Please just be sure to leave an email address if you are a no-reply blogger ;)  

ENTRY 1 - Simply leave a comment that tells me what do you like to do when it is Sunny outside??  (We just got back from a weekend in So. CA and I loved getting to watch the kids play in the ocean and sand  :)  

 ENTRY 2 - Show your Fat Quarter Shop love.   You can follow them on   Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, You Tube or at their Blog.  You can Sign up for their Newsletter which will ensure you catch all of their amazing sales, or you can visit The Shop and then share a favorite item ;)   Just be sure to leave a comment of how you showed your Fat Quarter Shop Love!!!

And that's it ;)  The giveaway will be open until next Tuesday, July 16th, when I will announce a winner at the beginning of next weeks Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Post :)

Good Luck and Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!

Magenta and Teal make 6!!!

While I do have a finish (or 2) from this week, I can't share them yet, but, I can share the two additional Scraptastic Star Blocks that I finished from my Leader and Enders from making those two can't share finishes :)    The first one was the Magenta color scheme, and ya know, I was totally loving this because it's in the purple family!!! 

And the second is the Teal block, and funny thing, this is my daughters favorite color!!!  So she was totally wanting this block as soon as I finished it.  But ya, I told her this is all part of my Scraptastic Stars  Leader and Ender project  and so she will just have to make her own :)    And I for sure have enough 2 1/2" squares for her to do just that!

And that means 6 down and only 10 to go!!!   Eeekk, I am so loving these!!   Each time I make another block and do a little happy dance seeing these rainbow of colors come together.   Next up is the light Yellow block and it will for sure add some more sunshine to this stack!!!

I hope you all have a very Happy Quilting Weekend!!!

9 Year Blogiversary and Introducing Tutorial Throwback Thursday!!!

Wow, so this week marks the 9 Year anniversary of staring my blog, Happy Quilting!!!  Just wow!!!  In that 9 years I have posted over 2000 blog posts, hosted over 300 Giveaways,  created over 75 free step-by-step tutorials, including the annual Quilt Alongs, and made a countless number of quilts!!!   And more importantly, I have made a countless number of quilting friends along the way!!!    I am daily grateful that I can share this quilting journey with each of you and can not thank you enough for joining me!!!

And so, with this being 9 years that means next year is my big 10 year anniversary.   And as I considered this, I decided I wanted to do something special leading up to that big 10!!!  I thought for a while and  I decided to do a new little feature here at Happy Quilting :)  It's called  Tutorial Throwback Thursday!!    Staring next week, and every Thursday leading to July 2020 I will share one of my Happy Quilting tutorials.   And I plan to share some "bonus features" on each of the tutorials.   Some more of the story of the quilt, the design inspiration, or just some funny introspect that I realize now after writting for 9 years ;)  My hope is that for a lot of you who joined in on the Happy Quilting journey somewhere along those 9 years, that you will get to see a little throwback from the past, and hopefully some "new to you" tutorials that inspire you ;)   And for those who have been with me from the start, well, it will still be a throwback and I hope you will be equally inspired to try something from "yesteryear" :)

And what better way to start off a Tutorial Throwback Thrusday that just happens to be on the 4th of July than with a Star Spangled Tutorial!!!  So let's throw way back to 2012 when I shared my Star Spangled Table Runner Tutorial!!!

And right away, the fun thing I realized with sharing these throwbacks is that with older tutorials comes older pictures as well.   These pics are at 200 pixels, which means sorry, a little blurry when I try to make them larger ;)  Another thing that I learned with time.   But I did try and spruce up the color a bit ;)

Anyhow, this tutorial is such a fun one to make!!!   I learned to do improv curves at a retreat and enjoyed every second of it.  So I incorporated what I had learned into this tutorial.   You make the improv curve by stacking your strips on top of one another with an inch overlap.  

And then you just start cutting a wavy curve, and it cuts both pieces with the same curve, making it easy to sew together.   And when I say easy, I do mean easy.  Because these are improv curves and they will be trimmed, it doesn't even matter if your ends line up, just start stitching and see where you end up, and then trim the ends straight.  So fun and easy and a wonderful way to start learning curves because you can't go wrong!!!

And then add some machine applique stars and you have a cute table runner!!!  And if you have never done applique before, I did a video tutorial over here that walks you through all of the steps of applique.   So you can possibly try two new things with this tutorial, Applique and Improv Curves!!

And another reminder that this particular tutorial is quite a throwback, I am quilting it on a home machine, and it happens to be my very first sewing machine ;)   I actually posted about Bernadette back here.    I still have her and she is a great little machine for teaching beginning sewers on.   I just love that!!    And speaking of the quilting, I did some all over Stars and Loops, which is a design that happens to be in the 180 More Doodle Quilting Designs book that I posted about over here ;) 

And how about that for our first Tutorial Throwback Thrusday!!!   That really was so much fun :)   So to make your own Star Spangled Table Runner just pop over here to the free step by step tutorial.   And when you are done, I would love to see it!!!  !!  You can email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com, post it to social media with #happyquiltingwithmc  or or add it to my flickr group here ;)  I can't wait to see your Star Spangled Table Runners!!!

Thanks so much for popping in today and each and every day!!!  I am so looking forward to this entire year of Tutorial Throwback Thursday's!!  I really think it is going to be a fun feature that has a lot of looking back over the Happy Quilting journey ;)